Office space: Accenture

Renee Sang, head of Accenture's Customer Innovation Network, looks into the mind of the consumer

April 30, 2012|By Kristin Samuelson, Chicago Tribune reporter

Renee Sang of Accenture stands by a large photo of customers in her office. (Abel Uribe, Chicago Tribune)

When Renee Sang walks among the four rooms of the Customer Innovation Network at Accenture, she faces a mural of disgruntled customers.

There they stand, arms crossed, frowning. Life-size. A reminder to Accenture and its clients how hard it can be to please customers.

"These are the very tough consumers you're trying to serve," Sang, head of the network, said of the mural. "You gotta make them happy. What are you gonna do?"

The mural reflects why Sang built the Customer Innovation Network, in operation since 2006, at the global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Two to three times per week, executives, supply chain representatives and marketing professionals from any of the Fortune Global 100 and 500 companies Accenture serves visit with Sang and her team to discuss customer sentiment about products, new technologies and trends and shareholder response to changes.

"We're constantly trying to keep things fresh," Sang said of the network and her team's consumer research. "What's new? What's coming? And then challenge our clients to think about these things: What do you need to do to be prepared, and how is this going to benefit the consumer?"

A virtual company, Accenture does not have dedicated offices for any of its employees, Sang said, so she has made herself at home in the network, spending the majority of her time there with clients, her 10-person team in Chicago or alone researching market trends.

"Our CEO is in Paris, our CFO is in New York, our executive committee is in whatever their home offices are. Instead of putting your photos up on your desk, you carry them around with you in your phone," said Sang, who came to Accenture in a finance and consulting capacity after graduating from theUniversity of Wisconsin-Madisonin 1989 with a degree in finance and accounting. She has spent the last 20 years focused on retail and consumer habits, and became a partner in 2000.

Accenture knows customers are tactile, so it has taken a hands-on approach to the Customer Innovation Network. The network's main room, deemed the Customer Room, has cabaret-style seating in front of a wall of large screens that display recent industry research on video or the Internet. In the corner is a faux grocery-store shelf filled with bottles of detergent. Scattered around the room are kiosks that help clients learn how customers shop.

"You've got to be able to touch and feel demos and have physical products that you hold in your hand," Sang said.

Sang cites a new trend: influence marketplace. Consumers base buying decisions on recommendations from their social media networks instead of a company's messaging. To explain this to clients, Sang will play videos of skits written and produced by Second City cast members portraying various consumer personalities. In one, "Diane, a context retailer consumer," loves certain products so much, she talks them up to strangers or on social media.

"What's important is how is an individual consumer's voice is heard and what do they say about (a client's product)," Sang explained. "How can they be our (clients') brand advocates?"

Behind the Welcome Room is the Immersion Room, currently under construction. Here, Sang and her team will simulate customer-focused space such as a grocery store tailored to the client. It helps the client experience "a day in the life" of its customers. On the opposite end of the network is Solutions, a circular room with black leather chairs arranged theater-style in which eight to 15 executives, on average, will learn about various solutions and industry practices.

They'll take that information into the Action Room next door and brainstorm their strategy in a creative setting complete with orange tables arranged in a doughnut to foster conversation and Rubik's Cubes, Magic 8 Balls and other toys on the tables. An artist in on the meeting will sketch the ideas as a record.

"What we didn't want was an innovation center where we do blue-sky, and then tomorrow (they) go back to work and nothing changes," Sang said. "We always try to focus on 'So what? What's the road map?'"

Sang also built and works from similar Accenture setups in Milan, Shanghai and Sao Paulo. As she tailors solutions to the client, Sang also made each space reflect its location: Chicago's space has bright green and orange walls to invoke creativity and innovation; Shanghai's has a red wall and bamboo floors to reflect traditional Chinese design; and Milan, with its focus on fashion, has a clean, white space scattered with cubes that is less digital than the other networks.

From those basics, all are flexible, changing with the needs of the client. If she is meeting with a food company, for example, the product demos, videos and images on the walls will all focus on food. Even the caterer will use ingredients from the client's company in its food preparation, Sang said.